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Pride's cheeks flushed. "I didn't say that exactly, but?—"

"Fated destiny is a convenient excuse for kissing strangers," Lust interjected dryly.

I absorbed this, my mind racing. "And my new abilities? The emotional alchemy?"

Pride's brow furrowed. "That's...unexpected. Reanimation sometimes awakens latent talents, but creating something entirely new is rare."

I thought of the cobalt bottle at home, still glowing with captured joy. The way emotions revealed themselves to me now as visible auras. My power—my unique, unexpected power that had emerged after I'd literally returned from death.

Wait. My magick was supposed to come from completing the bond with Xavier. What if...

Suddenly, something clicked into place. The contract with Xavier had been meant to unlock my magick, a union that would have bound our families through ritual and sex. Death had unlocked it instead—or rather, returning from death. Pride's essence had catalyzed something that was always inside me, waiting for the right key.

"I was reborn through death," I said slowly, the realization solidifying. "The traditional path to my magick was through a union with Xavier, but I found another way—through dying and returning."

I got my magick without him. I beat the system.

I'm free.

A tiny, unwelcome thought flickered at the edges of my mind: what if I'd simply traded one magickal bond for another? What if Pride's reanimation had created some kind of connection between us that I couldn't see or control?

No. Absolutely not. I refuse to believe I escaped one magickal contract only to fall into another one without my knowledge or consent. That's not how my story ends.

Lust straightened in his chair, interest sharpening his features.

"That's...actually a sound theory. Magickal contracts often have loopholes—the universe tends toward balance."

My gaze shifted back to Pride, seeing him with new clarity. Not as a savior or a creep who had kissed me without permission, but as a catalyst—an unwitting key to my own power. Whatever bond might exist between us because of thereanimation, it didn't give him ownership of me. That much I knew with bone-deep certainty.

"I'm not your destined anything," I told him firmly. "Whatever connection you felt, whatever power you used to bring me back—that doesn't make me yours. I don't belong to anyone."

Pride's expression fell, but he nodded slowly. "I understand."

"No, I don't think you do," I continued, feeling stronger with each word. "I appreciate that you saved me. Truly. But I've spent my entire life being defined by others—my mother, my coven, Xavier. I'm finally becoming someone of my own making, and I won't trade one cage for another, no matter how gilded."

Not again. Never again. I've been passed from one owner to another since birth. That ends now.

The office fell silent. Even Damon seemed to be listening, his tail swishing slowly against the floor.

I took a deep breath, centering myself. Then, acting on pure instinct, I reached for the anger still simmering inside me. It responded eagerly, rising to my call like a familiar pet. I imagined drawing it into my palm, the way I'd drawn the child's joy into the cobalt bottle. To my amazement, crimson light gathered in my hand—tangible, vibrant, pulsing with my fury.

Both sins stared, transfixed, as I shaped the energy between my fingers. It wasn't hostile magick—not a weapon or a threat—just pure emotional essence made visible as a cloud of red mist in front of me.

"This is what I am now," I said quietly. "Not your soulmate. Not a victim. Something new."

Something of my own making. Something no one can take from me.

Pride swallowed hard, his eyes never leaving the light in my hand.

"Incredible," he whispered.

The crimson energy dissipated as I released it, scattering into the air like embers. I felt oddly lighter, as if the demonstration had burned away some of my fear along with my anger.

"So," I said, straightening my shoulders. "Now that we've established I'm not some supernatural property to be claimed, what happens next?" I looked between the two sins. "What does being reanimated mean for me in the long term?"

Pride seemed to remember himself, blinking as if coming out of a trance.

"I...don't know, exactly. It's rare enough that each case is unique." He hesitated. "I actually came here looking for Lust for something entirely different. Finding you was...unexpected."